


second-hand emotion

by jasminetea



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Android!Erik, Androids, Angst, Cyborgs, M/M, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-28
Updated: 2012-08-28
Packaged: 2017-11-13 01:39:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/498001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jasminetea/pseuds/jasminetea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Although it broke his heart, Charles thought breaking up with Erik would be easy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	second-hand emotion

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted for [this](http://xmen-firstkink.livejournal.com/8700.html?thread=18549500#t18549500) prompt, which asked for Erik as an enslaved cyborg. Upon becoming free, he confesses his love to Charles, who rejects him, but not for the reasons you'd think.
> 
> Title from Erin Martin and The Shields Brothers' cover of "[What's Love Got to do With It?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1WTVewtkkM)"

Charles thought he was doing the right thing when he told Erik they couldn't be together. He'd done it as gently as he could, but there really isn't a gentle way to break someone's heart whether it's made entirely of organic material, cybernetics, or a mix of the two.  
  
Charles knows Erik is new to the world and being _free_. Entering a long-term relationship and settling down-- Charles knows what they have between them would _last_ \--before Erik's been able to live on his own, and do everything he wants to, would be a terrible idea.  
  
(Part of Charles also suspects no one's shown Erik much kindness at all until now, and that Erik's mistaking love and in love, and Charles' heart wouldn't be able to take that at all.)  
  
And of course, there's the elephant in the room: time. Erik will likely be around to roam the stars in spacecrafts long after Charles' ashes are scattered. No, better to not tie Erik's long lifeline to his short one.  
  
Charles says none of this though. Erik would only try to argue with him--and Charles loves the way he does, so eager to test himself and his opponent--and it's only cruel to prolong the conversation and give Erik false hope.  
  
It'd been easy to keep his resolve in the face of Erik's disappointment. What made it hard was the way Erik shuttered his face, the expression shifting to one Charles knows Erik used to use when he was still enslaved. An unreadable, blandly pleasant face that showed nothing of what Erik truly thought or felt.  
  
Charles thought their friendship gone in the moment, and Charles was selfish enough to mourn that.  He wanted to keep Erik's love near.  
  
It'd been shockingly easy to avoid each other, despite the fact they work in the same department. Their first meeting after the falling out is a budget meeting about how to fund a conscious-raising activity for Cyborg Rights in the Deep East, where cyborgs still are forced to take programming that blocks all their emotional pathways.  
  
Throughout the meeting, Charles and Erik's eyes keep catching one another, and when they leave the room, Erik's shoulders bumping into his--surely not an accident; Erik is never clumsy, that's how things worked when he was a slave--and the hot determination in his eyes tell Charles this isn't over. Not at all.

**Author's Note:**

> And then Erik proceeds to outrageously woo Charles.


End file.
